Just one more good question, Mr. Spencer

In an article on Jihad Watch today (June 2, 2007), Spencer frames a report with the posing of good questions raised by the discovery of a jihad manual in the home of one of the suspects involved in the bombing attempt in London on July 21, 2005 (as well as by the typical “surprise” by the suspect’s sister at this jihad book found in her brother’s flat):

Spencer asks:

Why does such material circulate? Why doesn't the vast majority of peaceful Muslims work actively against the distribution of such material, and institute programs in mosques and Islamic schools to teach against this violent ideology of Islamic supremacism? Why do they stand passively by and let jihadists distribute this material among Muslims?

Then notes wryly:

To ask such questions is to answer them. But no one in the mainstream is asking them.

This editorial framework by Spencer is—within the strictly delimited confines of his focus—impeccable. The problem, then, is the delimitation of focus. One more good question needs to be asked, and it would have been helpful for Spencer to include it:

Why is no one in the mainstream asking these questions?

And then, of course, it would also be nice if Spencer, and/or Hugh (or any of the other contributors to Jihad Watch) could devote at least a small percentage of time and labor to exploring this particular question. For it is the sociopolitical phenomenon to which this question adverts that is the single most important factor that hinders the pedagogical mission of Jihad Watch. One would think that Spencer and Hugh would be at least moderately interested in analyzing the #1 factor that makes their main mission in life so marginalized, vilified, and difficult.